1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to networking. More specifically, the invention relates to configuration of a network element having an unknown protocol address.
2. Background
Internet protocol (IP) is a predominant networking protocol in use today. This is due at least in part to the fact that IP divides the network into subnets and is therefore highly scaleable and suitable for implementation of very large networks. Using IP, the management device is only able to access and therefore configure those devices having a same subnet address as the management device. Accordingly, for configuration purposes, a network element with an unknown IP address typically would be coupled to the management device via a serial port. The network element could then be manually configured via the serial port to use an IP address in the same subnet of the management device. Without a serial port, configuring a network element without a known IP address would normally require an external reset of the network element's configuration (typically via a reset switch) to force the network element to use a well-defined IP address, and then reconfigure the management device to use an IP address in the same subnet. When the number of devices to be configured increases, the inconvenience of this method of configuration similarly increases.